Our traveler, also, was the forerunner of Layard. In visiting Mosul, he
writes: 'Near this place one sees the hill of Jonah, upon whom be
blessing! and a mile distant from it the fountain which bears his name.
It is said that he commanded the people to purify themselves there; that
afterwards they ascended the aforesaid hill; that he prayed, and they
also, in such manner that God turned the chastisement from their heads.
In the neighborhood is a great ruin, and the people pretend that it is
the remains of the city known under the name of Nineveh, the city of
Jonah. One perceives the vestiges of the wall which surrounded it, as
well as the situation of its gates. On the hill stands a large edifice,
and a monastery, which contains numerous cells, apartments, places of
purification, and fountains, all closed by a single gate. In the middle
of the monastery one sees a cell with a silken curtain, and a door
encrusted with gold and precious stones. This, they say, is the spot
where Jonah dwelt; and they add that the choir of the mosque attached to
the monastery covers the cell in which he prayed to God.'

Returning to Bagdad, Ibn Batuta crossed the Arabian Desert a second
time, and took up his residence in Mecca for the space of three years.
His account of the voyage along the eastern coast of Africa, as far
south as Quiloa, is brief and uninteresting; but on his return he
visited Oman, of which province he gives us the first authentic account.
From the Pearl Islands in the Persian Gulf, he bent his way once more
across Arabia to Mecca, whence he crossed the Red Sea to the Nubian
coast, and descended the Nile to Cairo. I shall omit his subsequent
journeys through Syria and Asia Minor, although they contain many
amusing and picturesque incidents, and turn, instead, to his adventures
in Kipchak (Southern Russia), which was then governed by a sultan
descended in a direct line from Genghis Khan. Embarking at Sinope, he
crossed the Black Sea to Caffa, in the Crimea, which was at that time a